Left Behind
by Kohaku Frost
Summary: Jesse: known only as the bombs expert of AVALANCHE. But how did she get there? Why? Who is Jesse? ...and did she really die? Rated for language, violence, some mature themes, character death. SephirothJesse, but not by choice.
1. The Business at Hand

Left Behind

Chapter 1 – The Business at Hand

The rebels had been entrenched in the office building for five days now, and Shin-Ra Inc. was getting tired of it. SOLDIER hadn't yet been able to take back the building, and President Shin-Ra had ordered in the Turks. The leader of the Turks, Kisaragi Tseng, had sent themostdetructiveTurk to do the job. The Great Sephiroth would be accompanying her, and so Tseng didn't think much of letting thebad-ass do the job.

The building was old and decrepit, crumbling to bits and now blasted full of holes. The Turk knew that Shin-Ra didn't want the building saved for the sake of the hostages, but as a means of showing other rebel groups that they meant business. She also knew that if she, for some odd reason, didn't make it out before the bombs went, it would be no great loss. She was a mere bombs expert...not anything special, like Sephiroth. Jesse flipped her plain brown bangs out of her eyes, and then adjusted the sight on her rifle. She pinpointed the guards in the windows, resisting the temptation to take them out. She was to blow the building sky high, taking everything in it out, not just individual guards.

Jesse raised her head from the scope, leaning back and stretching her arms over her head. She was in an office two blocks away, and trying her damnedest to ignore the presence of the General. He sat on a desk, his back ramrod straight, polishing his famous sword. He had his long silver hair loose, and every now and then, he would push it behind an ear, a habit Jesse took note of. It was nice to know that even the greatest warrior to ever live had a few unconscious habits. She leaned the rifle against the wall near the window and walked over to the chair she'd draped her suit jacket over. After a few moments of fishing in the pockets, she found her cigarettes and lit one, taking a grateful, heavy drag before putting the half empty pack away.

Sephiroth looked up from his sword and fixed her with an intense look. She blew the smoke out of her lungs, letting it hang in the air between them. She didn't like the way a mere glance from him could freeze her lungs. She'd avoided saying a single word to him, letting Tseng brief him on their job, the enemy, all of that. She wanted nothing more than to get on with the business at hand, then go home and feed her cat. Maybe read a few books before she went to bed, drink a few glasses of wine, and do it all again tomorrow. She left the tiny office without a backward glance, walking down to the ladies' room. Jesse splashed a few handfuls of water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror.

Intelligent, slightly tilted eyes looked back, tiny flecks of black scattered throughout the deep blue, framed by long dark lashes. Her mother had always told Jesse that her eyes were her best feature, and that was even truer now that she had tiny scars all over one side of her face. _If you could see me now, Mom_, Jesse thought. Her mother had died fifteen years earlier when Jesse was only nine, the accident that gave Jesse her scars taking her mother's life as well. Sent to live with her mother's wealthy cousin, the scarred child had been educated in the best Midgar schools, displaying an early fascination with learning, to the dismay of her adopted parents. They had believed that the only way Jesse would make a suitable society marriage had been if she had all the grace, poise, charm, and lack of brain cells the debutantes of the day were known for.

Jesse had the grace, the poise, and the charm of a big cat, being everything her relatives had wanted her to be, but with a decidedly sharp edge. Her grace was tinged with something dangerous, her poise bordered on cynical arrogance, and her charm was best appreciated cold. Jesse had skipped finishing school to get her degree at the University of Midgar, graduating in the top two percent of her class. Instead of entering the marriage market, Jesse went to work for the Shin-Ra weapons department as an explosives designer. Within a year she had been promoted to her own department, but Jesse's marriage of a man Scarlet had her eye on cost the position. Two months later, Jesse was divorced and back on the bottom of the corporate food chain.A few business lunches with Vice President Rufus and a quickie on his desk later, she was in the Turks, and had been there ever since.

Jesse ran a wet hand through her layered brown hair, pulling it away from her face, then letting it drop back into her eyes. She wondered why she still tried the gesture, since the scar tissue in her right shoulder prevented her from raising her arm all the way. It didn't feel right to do it with her left hand, so she had stopped the habit almost completely, resorting to it only in moments of extreme nervousness or stress.

She adjusted her fingerless black gloves and then slammed her fist toward the mirror. Her knuckles stopped scant millimeters from the glass, but it shattered all the same, and Jesse grinned wickedly at her fractured reflection. _Busted or not, I can still kick ass._ She turned on her heel and left the bathroom, letting the door bang shut behind her, muffling the sound of the falling glass. Violence always helped her feel more like the heartless killer everyone thought she had become, and a little wreckage in her wake didn't hurt the impression.

Jesse walked back to the miniscule office and took up her position by the window once more, refusing to meet Sephiroth's questioning gaze.


	2. A Whole New World of Icky

Left Behind

Chapter 2 – A Whole New World of Icky

Sephiroth watched the Turk in his peripheral vision. He'd heard countless rumors about her, but had heretofore successfully avoided contact with her. He thought she was insane, and the episode in the bathroom confirmed it for him. He'd picked up the sound of the water from inside the office, and then the much louder sound of the glass shattering, the door slamming, the shards falling. High ranking officers of SOLDIER first class whispered about her inhuman ability to control her body. Second class SOLDIERs muttered about her skill with explosives and the rumors she had the whole Shin-Ra building rigged to go at the push of a button. Third class murmured about all that, and her beauty. He understood how, even though Jesse was scarred on one side of her face, they thought she was beautiful. Her eyes caught and held you before they moved on, she had the grace of something fey and weightless. The delicate bones in her face were unmarred by her years as a Turk, and to the best of the General's knowledge, the only man alive to ever touch her was Rufus.

For some odd reason, the silver haired warrior found his eyes straying to Jesse's concentrating form by the window with unerring accuracy. A lit cigarette drooped from her half-slack lips, the ash clinging to the tip desperately. Her long, shaggy brown hair fell forward to mostly hide her face from his prying green eyes. He had avoided her for only one reason he would admit: she was the only person he'd ever known of who could possibly be his equal.

Despite her chain smoking, her skin was pale and unwrinkled. She held the rifle in steady hands as she sighted the guards one last time. Sephiroth stood up and stretched lazily while Jesse packed up her things. He held the door for her when they left the office, drawing a partially surprised, partially amused smirk from her. He felt his lips twitch in response and they left the dingy little room behind.

Jesse had grabbed a battered, worn old bag before exiting. The black canvas bag held all of Jesse's equipment, all the ingredients for her art. They crept from shadow to shadow in the failing light to the occupied building, bypassing all the police and guards soundlessly. Sephiroth moved surprisingly stealthily for such a big man. Jesse was faster though, and more daring. She darted across open spaces when the guards were but half turned. She didn't give a damn if she was caught, or so it seemed. The truth? Jesse had a death-wish, and she was ready and willing to take on anyone, or anything.

A few close calls, three defused traps, and one body later, Jesse and Sephiroth were inside the office building, and heading for the basement. They scrambled over a few piles of rubble from earlier attempts to remove the rebels, Seph courteously lending Jesse a helping hand so that she didn't get plaster dust all over her haphazard but clean suit.

The two reached the basement, and Sephiroth stood just inside the stairwell to stand guard. Jesse descended into the darkness, certain that there was nothing down there to fear. After all, just because it was creepy didn't mean there were rogue monsters down there waiting for the unwary...right?

Jesse bit back an irrational desire to ask Sephiroth to come with her. He had his job, and she had hers. Besides, the more valuable person always stayed closest to the exit in case of an emergency. There was no question that Sephiroth was more valuable. Fingers twitching around the handle of her bag, Jesse walked down the dank stairs and into a whole new world of icky.


	3. Memories of the Dead and Gone

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 3 – Memories of the Dead and Gone

The basement was dark, smelled musty, and brought a wealth of horrid memories to the surface for Jesse. She remembered how the former Turk leader, Vincent, had hated dank places like this. He had been her mentor, and her secret lover. But he had fallen for the wrong girl, and now he was wasting away in the basement of the Shin-Ra Mansion in Nibelheim. It had been five years since they'd said goodbye, sitting on the roof of the Mansion, under a clear night sky, telling stories and ignoring lies. Vincent had made her want to do something right, something worth doing. So in the alcohol induced haze just after his disappearance, that had translated into becoming a Turk. So, she'd divorced her asshole husband, done many horrible as a Turk, and now she was second in command.

Jesse tried to shut off the memories running through her head, but it wasn't easy. Better that she be dwelling on relatively pleasant memories as opposed to the memories basements usually inspired in her. Tentatively she touched her scarred cheek, once more seeing the man with the gun threatening her and her mother. Jesse shook her head, now was neither the time nor the place to remember how she got her scars.

She reached the basement floor and turned on her flashlight before venturing further. Just as she took a step, she felt a large hand touch her shoulder and she stifled a yelp. She turned around to see Sephiroth standing behind her, his eyes sparkling with amusement, making them glow even brighter in the darkness. His face was lit by the glow of his Mako green eyes, and Jesse sighed before going back and sitting on the stairs, balancing the flashlight between her knees to take her anti-Mako contacts out. She had perfect vision, but hated the glow from her eyes. Mako blue often shone brighter than Mako green, but not in Sephiroth's case. Jesse stood up; carefully placing the little plastic disks in a small case she carried in her bag o' tricks, then returned to where she had been before.

"You shouldn't be down here." That was the first thing she had ever said to Sephiroth, and it startled him. He looked at her closely, it was all too easy in the brilliant blue glow from her eyes. It was the perfect light for her, making her seem even more beautiful. The blue Mako brought out brilliant red highlights in her hair that otherwise were invisible.

"Why ever not?" His voice was deep and strong, running like silk across Jesse's skin. She had put the flashlight away with the contacts, she didn't need it when she glowed.

"The most valuable person always stays near the exit in case of an emergency. That's a definitive rule of being on a Shin-Ra mission; you should know that, General." Jesse had a slightly raspy smoker's voice, low and soft. She never raised her voice, seeing no point to it. Sephiroth barely managed to repress a grin, pleased to see a way of ending the argument.

"By acknowledging my rank, Turk, you have acknowledged that I am the superior officer on this mission." He saw Jesse quickly pull a blank face, concealing the swearing she was apt to do in such a circumstance. "I shall go with you. It would be more enlightening than simply being left behind to guard the door against dust motes."

Jesse saw that for now she had been outmaneuvered, so she chose to bide her time and wait for an opportunity to gain the upper hand again. She had no idea that Sephiroth had noticed how she paled and trembled when going down the stairs. He had checked the file on Jesse before the mission, gaining access to some of the most confidential parts due to his rank.

When she was nine years old, Jesse had been in Midgar City Bank with her mother when Dirk Carlyle and his brother Jest decided to rob it. Jesse and her mother had been the last two hostages, and Shin-Ra had determined that they were expendable. Gregory of the Turks had gone in as a negotiator and replacement hostage. The Carlyle brothers had shot him just inside the glass doors. That was when President Shin-Ra gave the order to blast the bank and everything in it.

While Gregory had been distracting the gunmen, another Turk, Vincent, had slipped in and rigged a bomb to the largest of the vaults. That vault was coincidentally the one Jesse and her mother had been kept in. The bomb went off, cratering the vault and the rest of the bank. Jesse's mother had died in the explosion, covering Jesse when the glass from the doors was sucked into the vacuum caused by the blast.

The file had neglected to mention that the vaults in Midgar City Bank had all been below ground. Sephiroth had found that out when he researched the layout of the building. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole incident was that Vincent of the Turks, at the time only 15 –the youngest in history- had persuaded the Turk leader to set up a foster family for the girl Jesse, passing them off as her aunt and uncle. Apparently Vincent had felt so horrible about setting the bomb that he blamed himself for the whole shebang. Sephiroth had accessed the Turk leader from that period's records, learning that no one had told the boy that there were still hostages in the building.

Sephiroth had his own orders for this mission. Get Jesse to the basement, knock her out, and get the hell out of there. It hadn't been said in so many words, but the intention was clear. Jesse of the Turks had worn out her usefulness, and was now to be terminated. With the threat of war with Wutai looming on the horizon, the platinum haired soldier had heard rumors of Tseng being taken out as well, but Shin-Ra had some hold over him that negated that.

It had crossed Sephiroth's mind to follow orders, but where would to fun in that be? He was attracted to Jesse in more ways than one, and if Shin-Ra couldn't appreciate her, he was more than capable of doing so.

Jesse walked unerringly to the largest support pillar, carefully rigging the explosives to it, managing to push the memories of the dead and gone out of her already too crowded mind. She turned around once she was done to see Sephiroth standing by the stairs, his sword drawn and a hard look in his glowing eyes. Jesse paused to swear as her heart froze, and the cold spread to the rest of her body.

She should have known there was more to the Great Sephiroth being on this mission than just to supervise her. Her card was up, the Grim Reaper was waiting, but Jesse was going to have a pound of General-flesh to pay the ferryman with.


	4. Ten Minutes

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 4 – Ten Minutes

Disclaimer: As much as I adore the Final Fantasy series, I don't own any of the characters therein, and I don't foresee any major OCs in this story arc. See my profile page for details.

Sephiroth watched as Jesse stepped back and grinned. She was insane. Beautiful, deadly, but insane. She was going to fight him, rather than simply letting him attack and meeting her fate, she intended to get her kicks in. It only made Sephiroth more enraptured with her.

Jesse smiled gleefully, watching Sephiroth take his stance by the stairs. She rested her weight on her right foot, hands casually in her pockets. It was the Turks fighting stance, only she had modified it a bit, incorporating the style of a half-Wutainese from Nibelheim that she'd studied with when she was younger. Zangan had taught her many things, stopping in Midgar every few months to train her more. Most importantly, he had taught her how to use injuries to her advantage. She was even more dangerous when wounded, knowing a thousand different techniques to use with any possible injury.

Vincent had said that she was almost too good, something he had warned her about when she became a Turk. She knew that power was gauged by how many SOLDIER First Class a Turk could take out in ten minutes. When it had been her turn to play, they'd run out of SOLDIERs.

Jesse twitched her fingers in her pockets, waiting for Sephiroth to make the first move.

Sephiroth watched Jesse, glancing at the timer on the explosives behind her.

Ten minutes.

So fast that Jesse could barely see him, Sephiroth slashed at her, the blade of Masamune hissing past her ear. Jesse didn't move until Sephiroth was retreating to his position by the stairs. She dashed forward, getting behind him and delivering a high, spinning kick to the back of his head. She did handsprings all the way across the basement floor, barely missing the swings of Masamune as she went. Her feet hit the far wall, and she rebounded upwards, clinging to a pair of support beams on the ceiling. The whole time, she had her eyes closed, forcing Sephiroth the fight her in the eerie green glow of his eyes alone.

Taking a breath, Sephiroth closed his eyes, lightly touching the core of power in him before opening them again. Now, nearly the entire room was bathed in ghostly green shadows, flickering with every measured, carefully soundless breath he took. Jesse could see the green from behind her eyelids, seeing a two-fold purpose to the increase in Sephiroth's glow-range. Now, she couldn't tell he was near by the shine of his eyes, and he had a greater visual range.

The kick she had delivered would have crushed the skull of a SOLDIER Third Class with little problem, but it had merely stunned Sephiroth. In an untouchable corner of her mind the clock on the explosives ticked down, and Jesse smirked to herself. The display on the bomb was set on a ten minute timer. The bomb itself was set for five.

One way or another, Sephiroth wouldn't be walking out of this alive.

Neither of them spoke, the time for words had passed, or maybe it had never been there to begin with. Jesse admitted to herself that she was impressed with the strategy he was using, going from one end of the room to the other, listening for her breath. Or maybe he was good enough he could hear her heart pounding out the bass line of the latest rap song. If it hadn't been for her unique ability to feel the change in air currents as he passed, he probably would have gotten her by now. It had been a long time since she'd last fought someone so Mako enhanced, and her legs were starting to cramp from the strain of holding her still between the beams.

The timer in her mind whispered two minutes across her thoughts.

Much as she would have liked to stay put and let Sephiroth simply die in the blast, he needed to be hurt for thinking he could beat her. Jesse refused to even acknowledge the possibility she was going back into close range because her legs couldn't hold her.

Sephiroth her the whisper of cloth against cement just before he felt Jesse land on him from above, the Turk wrapping her slender but strong legs around his shoulders and clawing her hands into his face to cover his eyes. No wonder she kept her nails long. Short of cutting off his head or losing his eyes, there was no way Sephiroth could pry her off him, so he took advantage of the situation and reached up beneath Jesse's arms to tickle her sides.

It was most unorthodox, and Sephiroth would have put his hands somewhere else on her torso, but he never touched a lady like that without permission. Jesse was forced to let go from shock, and she was easily thrown into the nearest wall. A cloud of cement dust rose from her impact, showing a glimpse of her poised on the wall itself, perfectly balanced, just before she vanished.

The timer in Jesse's mind had run down to fifteen seconds, and as she felt it would be foolish to die in a basement with the Great Sephiroth, she made it to her bag and up the stairs before he realized where she was.

Swearing profusely, Sephiroth went after her, determinedly refusing to let her go.


	5. The Big Bang

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 5 – The Big Bang

Author's Note: In case anyone's noticed, I took a liberty with the spelling of Jesse's name. In the game it's spelled Jessie. I recently realized this when I obtained a working copy of disc 1. I'll be keeping my spelling, for reasons you'll soon understand.

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Jesse flew out of the office building like a chocobo chased by the Zolom, her Mako-enhanced and well-trained body nothing but a blue shadow in the corner of the eyes of the lazy guards. But it was enough of a shadow to catch their attention, and so they saw Sephiroth's platinum and black blur racing after the first. Of course, they opened fire, simply making an opening drum roll for the explosion.

It started with a clicking noise, almost like the cocking of a gun, quickly becoming a spasm that shook the ground and rattled the teeth of anyone standing within ten city blocks. Jesse and Sephiroth were the only two not affected by the shake, sprinting so quickly that their feet barely touched the ground. It was the sound of the blast that knocked them both to the ground, clutching their ears.

The screaming of the titanium support beams throughout the whole building, the rumble of the building collapsing in upon itself before blasting outward, all happened in the longest, most painful second of Sephiroth's life. Jesse had already gotten to her feet, having been able to pitch the blast into a range that she couldn't hear. There were some benefits to having survived such blasts before, and from much closer range. Sephiroth hurriedly chased after her again, dodging the huge chunks of cement that rained down from the sky.

When Tseng said that Jesse was destructive, he hadn't been kidding. It was almost beautiful, in a cold, passionless way. An odd thing to say about a fiery blast, but it was true. A massive I-beam came whistling through the air to embed itself into the pavement right in front of Sephiroth, but he leaped over it and continued on. Jesse had vanished into the ether. He increased his senses a hundred-fold through his Mako-enhancements, and yet he couldn't even pick up a whiff of her perfume over a twenty block area.

It never crossed his mind to wonder if Jesse had strong enough Mako-energy stored in her to mask her presence. He had even sent a pulse of energy through the sewer system, but hadn't encountered anything. Glaring furiously, he turned on his heel and stalked away into the cloud of dust and smoke, slowly fading from sight, becoming no more than a shadow.

Jesse stayed hidden until all the dust had cleared and the clean-up crews had been called. When there was no hint that Sephiroth had ever been there, she climbed out of the empty dumpster and stretched. The dumpster that had been her refuge was labeled _Hazardous Mako Waste Only _and it was made of a specially treated mythril that eliminated all traces of Mako energy. It hadn't been the first time she'd used such a method to escape from something, and Jesse thanked her lucky stars that Vincent had imparted that little secret to her.

Now that she was relatively in the clear, Jesse shed her Turks suit and dug around in her bag for the spare clothes she kept in there. In the shadow of the dumpster she changed into a pair of black pants, a blue shirt, and tied her hair back. After rubbing a little dirt into her cheeks and putting in the anti-Mako contacts, Jesse looked like just another slum dweller. It was a good disguise, and Jesse trekked to Sector Four with little notice. Once there, she took a roundabout trip to reach a small white and blue house with a tiny yard.

A fat calico cat sat in the front window, and mewled when it spied Jesse slinking up the walk. Jesse unlocked the door and stepped inside, picking up the cat as it leaped onto her and purred.

"Is my Kittelina hungry?" Jesse stepped into the kitchen and stopped dead, glaring at the intruder. Not only was he in her house, but Sephiroth was drinking from her favorite mug.

"I walked all over this goddamn Plate looking for your home. It seems that you tend to lower your shields when you're here, and that made it relatively easy." Sephiroth favored Jesse with a smirk, inwardly cursing her sneakiness. Every Turk had a second, secret home that wasn't on the company records, and Jesse had chosen the most unnoticeable home of them all: a small three bedroom house in a middle-to-upper class subdivision. The house itself was fairly nondescript, featuring a bicycle out front and a spacious yard in the back, but little else.

"...Why are you here?" Jesse was hoping to actually get some information as well as buy time. She flicked her eyes to the clock on the stove and swore silently. She would have to either kill Sephiroth or at least incapacitate and hide him –within three minutes. What was it with this man and timers? She set her cat on the counter, turning her back to Sephiroth to do so.

"To see you and finish what we started. I have no intention of killing you, Jesse." Jesse never raised her hands from the cat, but suddenly she was facing Sephiroth with a set of wicked looking claws, the middle one of which was pressing into the tip of his nose. The claws would have been already shoved through his face, except for the fact that the General had Masamune pressed against Jesse's throat.

The Masamune couldn't actually shed blood, so a thin line of open flesh appeared on the brunette's neck where the blade touched. A single drop of blood collected on the tip of Sephiroth's nose and slid down the hair-splittingly sharp blade. Jesse's eyes were locked with Sephiroth's, the colors of the night warring against purest jade, and though neither looked with their eyes, they both saw the drop of blood in painful clarity.

Just as the blood was about to drop, the battle of wills between the two monsters was interrupted.

"...Mommy?"


	6. Delicate Dalliance

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 6 – Delicate Dalliance

Of all the things in her life, the one Jesse refused to regret was her son. Truthfully, he had been a mistake, the product of a one night stand between a drunken father looking to forget his pain and a mother who risked her entire future simply for one night of bliss. The boy had never known his father; the man had never known he had a son. It would be thirty-two years before the two would meet, and then it would be on opposing sides of a Planet-wide war. Jesse had left a letter rolled up in the barrel of Vincent's gun, telling him that he had a son, the birthdate, birthplace, blood type and other pertinent information. She'd also included the password to a safe in a Junon bank, where there were pictures and other things regarding the boy. She updated it every few months.

Now, at five years old, Reno was eaten alive by curiosity about everything around him, and he had the temper his red hair promised. Jesse was proud of her son, but she worried that by not finding a father for him she had somehow failed.

None of that mattered now though, since the boy was staring at Sephiroth with a look of malice reserved for killers and Turks. He had easily picked up on the tension in the room, and he'd pinpointed the General as its cause with unerring accuracy. At the sound of his voice, both Sephiroth and Jesse had dropped their attack positions. It was almost funny how the tiny child stood there, both hands holding the gun steady, staring down the most feared man on the planet.

"Mommy... are you okay?" Reno's voice was cold and even, Jesse couldn't help but smile. Reno was fiercely protective of his mother, and had been known to run grown men out of the house in terror for looking at his mother in any way he deemed inappropriate. His was an angelic beauty that would turn breathtaking when he was older. It was hard to imagine that a child with such huge blue-green eyes, vibrant crimson hair and pale skin could shoot a man, but such actions were in his blood. Turks are often hereditary.

"Yes, sweetheart, I'm fine. Now, would you be so kind as to go to Rudy's house? The gentleman and I have business we need to conduct." Jesse smirked as Reno walked up to Sephiroth and lightly tapped his crotch with the gun.

"Any funny stuff mister and you'll have a little problem walkin', got it?" The boy then turned on his heel and left the room.

Sephiroth had endured all of this with a stunned silence that Jesse found quite gratifying. The scratch on his nose had already healed, and Jesse turned to the sink to get a rag for her neck. The first trickle of blood had started seeping from the wound, and the Turk knew that if Reno saw it he'd do something rash. Sephiroth suddenly plucked the cloth from Jesse's hand and held it to her neck for her, startling the brunette.

"Sorry about that. You surprised me, and I reacted poorly." Jesse stared at the platinum haired man, suspicious of his motives and clearly remembering that he'd broken into her house. Not only had the man tried to kill her, tracked her down, invaded her home, and then 'reacted poorly' when she tried to defend herself...now he apologized for it?

"Ask me if I give a damn. I want you out of this house, now." Jesse tried unsuccessfully to swat his hand away, but he caught her wrist and sighed. There was something about his demeanor that had changed since Reno had interrupted their fight. It almost felt like...regret?

"I will leave, but one thing before I do." Sephiroth stared into her blue-black eyes, looking for some hint of anything besides hate. To his shock, he could discern no flare of rage toward him or even dislike. He shook himself inwardly; of course there would be no emotion, Jesse was a Turk and such demons kept all things professional and utterly cold.

Refusing to acknowledge his better sense, Sephiroth tightened his grip on Jesse's neck, but not painfully. He could feel her strong pulse beneath his fingers as he turned her wrist and caressed her hand with his gloved fingers. A look of shocked comprehension dawned on the bomber, but rather than struggle, she smirked. Jesse shifted the grip he had on her hand with an ease that stunned him, and held it a few inches from his chest, over his heart. The point was clear to Sephiroth: he could crush her neck and kill her if he chose, but before she died, Jesse would use her strange power to burst his heart. It added an element of extreme danger to their closeness, and forced a wary delicacy to their embrace.

Rather than hold her tightly in his arms, Sephiroth leaned down and brushed the barest of touches against Jesse's lips with his own. It was the chastest kiss Jesse had ever experienced, but the thrill of kissing an enemy, who could kill her at any moment no less, made her heart pound like never before. She refused to think that maybe it was just Sephiroth causing her knees to weaken, as that would admit a fatal flaw.

Though he had only been in existence for three years, Sephiroth was no innocent. After Hojo had him sufficiently aged, a growth retardant was administered and Sephiroth had lived since as a handsome, single bachelor with excellent wealth and incredible power. He'd had his pick of the women of the world, and he'd chosen only the most exquisite beauties and brilliant minds for his companions. But never, out of all the dalliances he'd enjoyed, had a single kiss shaken him so much. Perhaps it was the fact that Jesse was the only Mako enhanced woman he'd touched, or that she was a warrior of equal skill and lethalness. Or, the most sobering of the possibilities, was that Jesse was simply his drug.

Either way, the two parted with the same harmony of motion and intent that they had joined with. Were they friends now? God no. Lovers? Not hardly.

Were they determined to continue this delicate dalliance?

Most certainly.


	7. Silence

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 7 – Silence

It was almost frightening how easy it was for Jesse and Reno to flee Midgar. Jesse's disguise was clever, but the guards at the Sector Four Gate should've questioned her anyway. Instead of using makeup to hide her scars, Jesse used it to cover her face in scars. She wore brown-colored anti-Mako contacts, dressed in the oldest, crummiest clothes she had, and jammed a grey, long-haired wig over her own rich brown hair. Reno called her "Grandma" in this disguise and the guards didn't cause problems when the boy with the wooden leg and the old woman left Midgar.

All evening, the kiss Sephiroth had given her tried to interfere in her scheming. So what if he'd kissed her? Simply another sort of warfare; that was all it could be. ...That was all Jesse would allow it to be.

The pair settled in Kalm, in a house Jesse had built within her first year of work. It was just outside the town, in a small copse of pine trees, a fifteen minute walk from the beach. The unique thing about this house was that it was above and below the ground, but not on it. The living room, master suite, small armory and watch tower were all in the trees in the clearing. Down a spiral staircase hidden inside a tree was the major part of the house. Three large bedrooms with a bathroom for each, the large armory, kitchen, dining room, pool and other rooms were under the clearing itself.

Now, some people might think this impossible, but when a wealthy person wants an unobtrusive fortress and knows what to prepare against, it was perfect. A clever arrangement of mirrors brought sunlight into the basement portion of the house, and the natural spring provided all the water. The plumbing was taken care of by the ocean.

The plumbing, Jesse admitted, was the one weakness. She had anti-Mako wards in every inch of the house and grounds, but there was a problem with containing the Mako once it left the house. Take bathwater for instance; the water absorbs excess Mako from Jesse and Reno, literally sucking it out of their skin. Now, that water goes to the ocean, and while in the pipes it collects anti-Mako particles to hide the radiation for a certain time. The radiation was invisible for approximately five miles. Anyone with a bit of Search Materia could trace the radiation back to Jesse's beach. Therefore, she had extended the pipe system an extra three miles out into the ocean, but that still didn't eliminate the problem.

Thinking along such lines, Jesse stood gazing out her bedroom window at the sea, switching her eyesight to see Mako only. And there it was; the glowing green path out into the ocean, a beacon for whoever wanted to find them.

XXX

Sephiroth stood perfectly still and listened to the shouting match in front of him closely. The emergency meeting of the Shinra executives had been interesting to say the least. He continued to watch Hojo and Heidegger battle it out, his thoughts on what he'd learned so far.

Jesse had rejected an offer to "join" the Science Department, and so Hojo complained to the President and the order to kill the beautiful Turk had been given. Heidegger, head of the Defense Department, had been utterly furious with Hojo and the President, for causing him to lose his best Turk. Tseng, leader of the Turks, stood behind President Shinra, his face blank and his normally full lips nothing but a tight white line. He was enraged.

Sephiroth looked at the other executives in turn, filing away their reactions in his mind. Scarlet was smiling gleefully; glad to be rid of her rival. Palmer was tinged with regret for the loss of such a pretty young thing. The other executive, Christopher Saire, was unreadable.

Sephiroth was greatly amused. Not once had they asked him if he'd succeeded in killing Jesse. No one doubted his ability, his invulnerability, his perfection. No one except Tseng, that is. The Wutainese had caught the gleam in the young General's eye, the laughter dancing in the brilliant green. Tseng had valued Jesse above all his other Turks. She'd been trained by Vincent, the greatest Turk to ever live.

Jesse had been his second in command, the Turk he trusted to watch his back, the woman who cried herself to sleep over a man who'd never loved her back when she thought everyone else wasn't listening, the only friend he'd had who wasn't looking to kill him for the throne of Wutai. And so, because of all this, Tseng said nothing and let Sephiroth gloat. Jesse was alive and out of Midgar, Tseng had seen her and the boy walk through the gate from the shadows. He knew they would head for Kalm and the fortress Jesse had built there.

But he would say nothing. Why? Because no upstart General deserved to love Tseng's angel of death.


	8. Youth

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 8 – Youth

Reno Coral (Valentine) hated being five years old. As the only child of successfully Mako enhanced parents to survive past diapers, he was gifted with an unusually high intelligence and physical ability. Many would think this heightened development would turn the ordinarily dull existence of a young boy into something wonderful, but it was quite the opposite. Nothing could change the fact that Reno was a special child, and special children had a habit of disappearing.

He tried his best to help his mother, and rarely got in trouble if he could avoid it. The redheaded boy knew that he was the only one who could protect his mother from the evil men who laughed about her behind her back.

But if he were just a few years older, he could do so much more for her. His mother was his world you see, the sun he revolved around. He got good grades to make her proud; he told funny jokes to make her smile. He scared off all the men who wanted her, so she couldn't love anyone else. But this new man was different. He wanted Jesse badly, but Jesse didn't want him. Reno had heard of the man, and despite his youth (or maybe because of it) he wasn't afraid. Warriors came and went, he knew that, and so he assumed that this new suitor was no different.

He hadn't left for Rudy's orphanage like his mother had ordered; he'd stayed behind, hiding in the shadows under the stairs, watching the silver-haired man wipe the blood from his mother's neck. He saw the sudden, harsh embrace and the delicate kiss. Reno's first thought was that the man had poisoned his mother, but then he was gone, slipping out the back door as though he'd never been. His mother paused to re-route some of her Mako energy into knitting her skin back together where the General had cut her, then she dashed through the house, packing things with an inhuman speed.

His mother always moved like that, and Reno had grown so accustomed to it being the norm that he began to imagine that everyone else were just dummies to fill the empty space, and that his mother was the only real person in the world. He loved his mother; she was life and death and all things that he knew were true. And now they had to flee. Jesse performed no unnecessary motion; she moved as though her mind had already planned out her path twenty steps ahead.

"Mommy...?" Reno stepped into the living room and saw his mother tense at his voice. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to the secret house. I thought I told you to go see Rudy." Jesse turned to look at her son; he was so precious.

"And leave you here alone with that man?" His tone brought a smile to his mother's lips.

"I'm a big girl, Reno. Now, come here and put on this costume."

"Oh great, I get to play the beggar boy again..." He sighed and rolled his eyes with great emphasis. Jesse burst out laughing and gathered the little boy into a hug. She didn't know what she'd do without him.

Reno stood at the sink and washed dishes, chatting animatedly with his best friend Rudy. Jesse had slipped back into Midgar to go to Rudy's orphanage and adopt him. Reno had wanted a brother for his birthday, and so Jesse had provided. Rudy looked nothing like Reno; his skin was the color of well-creamed coffee, he was tall for his ripe old age of seven, and his eyes were a crisp green color that contrasted well with his light brown hair.

"...and then he left, and Mommy started packing. Then we snuck out of the sector and came here." Reno and Rudy were going over recent events for the billionth time, trying to formulate a plan to make sure the Bad Man didn't ever come back. Rudy finished rinsing the last dish, and Reno hit the glowing green button by the sink before draining the water. He knew the importance of always activating the wards before letting any water leave the house.

It was a shame that there were people in Kalm who were unknowingly Mako-enhanced and shared similar radiation patterns to Jesse. All the wards in the world wouldn't erase their traces.


	9. Turks

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 9 – Turks

There were always at least three Turks, and never more than four. That was the way it had been since the beginning. Each Turk, if they lived long enough, would be captain eventually. The average lifespan for a working Turk was about six years. Jesse had been a Turk for five years when the order to kill her was given. She'd been the Turks' bomber for five years before that.

The Turks Jesse had worked with had been Tseng, Michael and Erin, with Jesse as second-in-command. She had been listed in Shin-Ra's files as the third greatest Turk in history, behind Vincent Valentine and Kisaragi Tseng, given her incredible abilities.

Turks train for a year or more just to be considered rookie level. The training was harsh and out of the thousands that attempted it every year, only one or two passed. Suffice it to say that Turks training wasn't like any other training on the Planet; no other program ordered you to kill everyone else in the program as your final exam.

The Turks were commonly called "the demons in blue" by the common folk of Midgar, and it was a name they deserved. Jesse loved her son more than anything, but she still set the bombs that took the lives of dozens of children. Jesse had been a vital part of the Turks; Tseng had depended on her to make sure things went smoothly, to keep the rookies out of trouble. She had never failed a mission, never failed to follow an order from Tseng.

She had a tendency to disregard orders from any but Tseng, since she felt that the Shin-Ra higher-ups hadn't been in the field, they had no right to make decisions. It was quickly becoming apparent how much Tseng had needed Jesse's help. She had been the perfect second-in-command, the independent thought processes of an officer, with the soldier's obedience. She was clever and ruthless and Tseng wanted nothing but to...it wouldn't do to get into that now that she was gone, Tseng thought to himself.

He was sitting on a soot-covered rooftop, picking out the patrol patterns of the security guards for a rival energy company. He set his sniper rifle down and lit a cigarette, much the way Jesse did. He sat back and sighed wearily. With only three of them for this job, it would be hard. He and Jesse had spent months planning this, hours pouring over maps and going through pack after pack of cancer sticks. The bomber on loan from SOLDIER wasn't half as good as Jesse; the poor fool was afraid of his own explosives. He was the best they had though, and Tseng paused to consider that perhaps Jesse had simply been reckless and wild.

He let a small smile touched his lips before blanking his expression. She had been reckless...even though she had a son to protect and care for, she was still willing to dance on the knife edge of death on a whim. But that was why he'd loved her so. Vincent had told Tseng to take care of Jesse before he disappeared. The man had known of Jesse's adoration, but hadn't been able to return the feeling.

That didn't stop you from getting drunk and sleeping with her, Tseng thought with a long cherished anger. His musing was interrupted by Erin, his new second. She was a small woman, fine boned and delicately curved, as stubborn and wicked as Jesse had been clever and cold. They were much alike, though Erin was slightly younger and still refusing to give in to the pain and despair she knew the world held for her.

"Boss, Michael and the new kid are in position." She paused, a flicker of all too perceptive mischief in her amber-colored eyes. "Since Ol' Blasty Britches isn't here, how are we going to do this?"

"What do you think of the new bomber? Think he can handle the plan we had?" Tseng chuckled at Erin's nickname for Jesse. The two had been incredibly close friends, and he knew that she had the same suspicions about Jesse's "death" that he did.

"I think he'd be more likely to blow himself up than the building. The man's terrified of us, so much that he's already needed to piss twice." Erin paused, flipping her long dark braid over her shoulder. "I think we should send somebody in through this access point, and then..."

She leaned over the blueprints with Tseng, making a new plan and resisting the urge to look over her shoulder and comment to someone who wasn't there. The unspoken vow between Erin and Tseng hovered around them as they prepared to take the building. They would find out what had happened to Jesse, and they would either see her safe or see who killed her dead.


	10. Fireworks and Proteges

Left Behind

A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc

Chapter 10 - Fireworks

Rudy Raleigh was an orphan. He knew this, since he'd killed his parents himself. He knew Reno's mom knew this too, but she'd still come back for him. He'd been friends with Reno for a while now; they both had a habit of getting into trouble, they were both smarter than was good for their ages, and neither feared death.

Rudy, later to be known as simply Rude, was a pyromaniac. He had burned down his house at the age of five, killing both his parents and badly injuring his older brother. His aunt hadn't wanted "that little fire demon" in her home, so while his brother had been taken in, he'd been sent away. He told the police that it had been an accident.

Earlier that day, his mother had burned lunch while she was busy playing trucks with him, and his father had beaten them both. His mother had been crying so hard that no number of hugs could make her feel better, finally shoving her sensitive young son away and telling him that it was his fault. Little Rudy had taken it to heart, and went to his room to play with the matches he kept hidden. He couldn't remember what had happened after that, but the next thing he knew, he was sitting in the middle of a burning house, cradling his burned hand to his chest. When the firemen carried him out of the house, he had screamed and fought to go back inside and die with his family.

Jesse knew this. She also knew that though the boy was considered unstable and dangerous, he and her son got along perfectly. She liked Rudy, and so she adopted him and took the chance that her whole world might go up in flames.

She was now home schooling both boys, and given Rudy's preoccupation with fire, she was slowly but surely teaching him the art of explosions. Naturally they started small, with fireworks.

Rudy was more sensitive than Reno, in some ways, and the boy quickly developed what Jesse called her bomber's timer, that section of her mind that was constantly on a countdown. She never had to guess how long something would take; she was precise and accurate and soon Rudy was developing his own sense of time.

The brown-skinned boy knew that there was no way he could pass as Jesse's biological son, and so he chose not to call her Mom. Jesse understood that, and she treated both boys equally. Eventually, Rudy called her simply Jess, which was close enough for both of them.

He was well aware of the danger Jesse was in, and so when he saw a tall man with long silver hair in Kalm, he told Jesse immediately. Unfortunately, that had been just what Sephiroth wanted.


End file.
